Politics This Morning Election 2015: War rooms versus vetting teams
As another candidate bites the dust, dropping out of the election campaign because of controversial social media posts, it seems political parties’ war rooms are outshining their vetting teams. The latest to fall is Bonvaista-Burin-Trinity, Nfld., Conservative candidate Blair Dale, a former staffer to retiring longtime Conservative MP LaVar Payne. Mr. Dale wrote comments on […]
Lawyer representing Carson, Wright says he was ‘surprised’ RCMP charged Duffy with bribery
Former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright’s lawyer says he was surprised the RCMP charged Senator Mike Duffy with bribery for accepting $90,000 Mr. Wright offered to repay ineligible housing allowances and per diems. Ottawa lawyer Pat McCann, who also represents former PMO senior adviser Bruce Carson in a trial on influence peddling charges that […]
17 ways to address Canadian security issues
The Munk election debate on foreign policy scheduled for Sept. 28 is likely to raise two questions. At the outset, the party leaders will likely be asked ‘what threatens our security?’ To hold his Conservative core, Stephen Harper will attempt to highlight his leadership, repeating his war record with the Taliban in Afghanistan, with the […]
Politics This Morning Election 2015: Carty talks Big Tent
The Liberal Party of Canada was considered the most successful political party over the last 100 years, but by 2011, the party was “broken, lost and deeply mired in unfamiliar territory,” says UBC professor Kenneth Carty in his new book Big Tent Politics: The Liberal Party’s Long Mastery of Canada’s Public Life. “Conservative Party electoral […]
Politics This Morning Election 2015: Carson goes on trial
Good Monday morning! It’s the beginning of the seventh week of the 78-day election campaign. Just as the Conservatives were getting over questions about Senator Mike Duffy’s fraud, breach of trust and bribery trial, a former top aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper goes to trial today. After several delays, Bruce Carson, a long-time Conservative […]
Legion of volunteers ‘essential’ to all political campaigns
After doggedly building up campaign war chests in the lead up to 2015, political parties are relying on volunteers, who make up the majority of campaign teams, to avoid blowing it all on compensation for campaign staff, say sources. “Volunteers are the backbone of elections,” said Robin MacLachlan, vice-president of Summa Strategies and a former […]
Party leaders’ campaign promises don’t align with Canada’s biggest challenges
TORONTO—In many respects, our election is like Christmas. Each political party is handing out ‘presents’—a tax cut, low-cost day care, bigger tax savings for education, and so forth. Apparently we are supposed to vote for the party that hands out the biggest and best ‘presents’ by the end of the campaign. But there is nothing […]
12 things you should know about MP privileges during the election
As of Aug. 2, 2015, the 41st Parliament dissolved, and until after the Oct. 19, 2015 election, Canada doesn’t technically have any sitting Members of Parliament, as all the seats in the House are up for grabs, but when it comes to getting paid, and claiming certain privileges, the House still recognizes MPs as MPs, […]
Forsey says ‘outrageous’ Senate is tool of PMO, it’s the real scandal
Today’s embattled Senate has lost its independence and has been largely taken over by a “warped political culture of competition and domination,” says activist writer Helen Forsey, daughter of the late and leading constitutional expert Senator Eugene Forsey. But Ms. Forsey, author of A People’s Senate For Canada: Not a Pipe Dream!, says the Senate […]
Party positions on biotechnology: a primer
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May pledged last week that the Greens would immediately stop all federal funding to government departments that research genetically modified organisms. The promise, included in the party’s fully-costed platform, would result in $101-million in funding pulled every year from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada, The […]
